Moral Courage & Volunteering – Pillars of Civil Society

The new black-yellow ruling coalition seeks to limit German compulsory military service to six months. This restructuring would not only entail a far-reaching upheaval within the German armed forces of the Bundeswehr but also lead to severe personnel shortages in social services. The official statement set off a public discussion on the state of civil society in Germany.

Following the tragic events in September 2009 in which Dominik Brunner paid for his courageous intervention in a fight in the Munich S-Bahn with his life, many experts diagnosed a brutalization within the society and prophesied an end to moral courage in society in Germany as a reaction to the brutal murder.

Are moral courage, voluntary engagement as well as taking on honorary positions truly only relics from past and better times? Or do opposing trends such as a consistent increase in the number of applicants for a voluntary social year and the voluntary ecological year show that the pillars of civil society are still stable and healthy?

Literature references as well as descriptions of research projects seeking to get to the heart of these questions are offered in four chapters. References on moral courage, volunteerism, civic involvement and institutionalized volunteerism should provide an overview of the current research landscape in social science.

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